Will this AI-designed, cheese-inspired 'sit device' consign bike saddles to history? Swiss inventors claim wide and weird creation eliminates rear discomfort

Swiss start-up Mornera has developed a new bike seat – or 'sit device', or a 'bike board' as it interchangeably calls its creation – crafted utilising artificial intelligence (AI) to the max. DAIMON, the brand's first "gluteal bike saddle", promises to revolutionise "the well-being of every mindful biker", with an AI-based saddle design that is quite far from anything we've ever seen before.

Navigating through Mornera's website is almost as confusing as the wide, futuristic shape of the seat itself, but there are plenty of big claims. One of those is that this sit device will "eliminate any type of inflammatory process on the pelvic region" – attached to a board shape that seems to be mostly targeted at mountain bikers and urban city riders; although Morena does say that "DAIMON is conceived to replace traditional interstitial bike saddles in mountain biking, road biking and city biking." We'll be keeping an eye out at the Tour de France come July, then... 

The shape is likely to divide opinions, and our resident mountain biker Liam at off.road.cc didn't hesitate to give his verdict: "That looks like the kind of saddle you absolutely do not ever want for MTB."

Well, perhaps those who share Liam's view just aren't quite ready for the bike seat revolution that Mornera is aiming to start here. The inventors say the 'bike-board' is "conceived as if it were a snowboard", whatever that's supposed to mean. 

The main idea behind the wider rather than longer design is that you can shift your weight from side to side, instead of forward-back as you would on a traditional saddle. And this, according to Mornera, "is precisely this continuous change of interaction with the sit board that allows not only to avoid any type of physical discomfort, but to also tone the back muscles." 

Considering how many of us cyclists constantly complain about back pain, that claim to tone the back muscles? That does sound quite appealing. To achieve the purported back-toning, Mornera has truly utilised AI and thrown the saddle-design book deep into the bin, because it is very much unlike others with its wide, board-like shape. At 298mm, it's about twice as wide as most regular road bike saddles.

It must be said, though, that despite its unusual shape, DAIMON has something in common with Saddlespur, the viral saddle with a backrest, and this prostate-friendly creation: they all aim to eliminate saddle discomfort. 

The seat is also 130mm long and 69.5mm tall, which makes it everything most saddles are not. All this has been done to correct what Mornera claims is a "huge misunderstanding" in traditional saddle designs: 

Mornera says: "Classic interstitial saddles are based on a huge misunderstanding: freeing the thigh matters most of all. Artificial intelligence says this is not true, unless you accept physical pain while trying to shatter world records.

"The question is very simple: freeing the mobility of the thigh at the expense of a compression of the perineum is not a good idea, even less for those who practice sports at an amateur level, where interstitial saddles are not imposed by any regulation or technical committees."

The brand also goes as far as saying that with DAIMON, you won't need any more padded bib shorts, "strange central hollows" (more commonly known as a cutout or pressure relief channel) or "ugly orthopaedic solutions". 

What about those 'wings' then? According to Mornera, they are the key to helping you to keep moving on the saddle and sit on your glutes rather than on any soft tissue. 

"Providing the saddle of your bike with an active elastic flexion and a shape memory solution to amortize those return forces from the ground otherwise hitting your bone structure. The rail frame flexes and returns to its original position like a spring, in perfect harmony with the natural movement of the biker’s body on the pedal. Gravity forces get absorbed. The challenge of protecting your body from harmful back forces is won," Mornera boasts. 

Despite its quite chunky look, the DAIMON has a claimed weight of 263g and is available in all sorts of colourways, including 'Emmental', which as you might have guessed, resembles Emmental cheese with its large holes. The base is made of nylon, the rails are steel and the padding is silicone. 

Prices are set at 205€ per seat (about £171) before import duties and the like.

If Mornera's bumptious claims haven't cheesed you off too much and you'd like to find out more, you can head over to the Mornera website.